I tend to be sceptical about things like affiliate marketing and my friend Corbett Barr used to be too – that’s him in the picture. But affiliate marketing’s not a cheesy scam and it’s not just dodgy Internet marketers who make money from it. It can be a completely ethical and honest way to make money.
With affiliate marketing all you’re doing is giving people who are interested in a specific product a link to a website where they can find it. If they visit the site, like the sound of it and buy it you then get a cut. The buyer doesn’t pay any extra so it seems like a win win win situation for buyer, seller and affiliate reseller.
The percentage of the cut varies from 4% at Amazon to 75% for some generous affiliate products and basically that’s the money you’ll get for providing someone with the useful service of helping them find something they were probably looking for anyway.
If this is interests you Corbett has just started offering an affiliate marketing course for beginners. The course offers access to a website with all the information you need to set up your own website or blog and give affiliate marketing a go.
I’ve successfully dabbled with affiliate marketing here by writing about a couple of ebooks and courses that I recommend and have earned money by doing so, but the Affiliate Marketing for Beginners Course is for people who want to set up a website specifically to resell products.
Corbett’s got a good track record with affiliate marketing – after 9 months he now makes thousands of dollars per month using his new knowledge. I’m sure he’s worked long and hard to build his business up to that level and I also know he has two blogs with a solid readership of people like me who trust him 100%, but it goes to show that it can be done. Best of all it’s not just for dodgy characters and geeks.
7 Reasons I Recommend this Affiliate Marketing for Beginners Course
1. The course shows you how to buy a domain name and set up a wordpress blog which is brilliant for anyone with a tight budget who wants a blog or website, even if you’re not ready to do the whole reseller thing yet.
2. Corbett recommends a reliable web host with low fees that includes one free domain registration and gives you a special code for a $50 off hosting voucher. If you don’t have your own domain name yet and want to set up a WordPress blog this offer could make your dream of having your own domain name a reality.
3. It’s a one off membership fee so there are no recurring expenses on the course.
4. All the content is on a website so you can easily find what you’re looking for and come back to it whenever you want.
5. When you’re doing the course you can ask Corbett questions right on the site and he replies.
6. There’s a money-back guarantee.
7. Corbett says his course is much cheaper than other similar courses. I’ve checked it out in detail and since it’s such a good deal I felt duty bound to let you know about it.
More About the Course
Affiliate Marketing for Beginners is a complete step-by-step ethical course on affiliate marketing that will guide beginners through making their first sale from affiliate marketing. It includes 5 modules and 21 lessons, and doesn’t require any special knowledge to follow. There’s also a functional example website to help you.
The 5 Modules are:
- Introducing affiliate marketing
- Finding opportunities – This section includes great explanations of key word research that will help any blogger or business person with a website.
- Creating a site
- Generating traffic
- Advanced and scaling up
You can read all the juicy details here.
Final Word
In case you’re wondering I am an affiliate reseller for this. Corbett invited me to recommend his course and for once I agreed to it. I refuse most of these requests but this one seemed different. Mainly because it seems like such a good deal I’d be doing you a disservice if I didn’t at least mention it. Here’s the equation as I see it:
Free domain name + Discount on hosting + Info on how to start a WordPress blog or website + Crazy low price = Offer too good to refuse
If the Affiliate Marketing for Beginners Course sounds interesting check it out here.
{ 38 comments… read them below or add one }
I’d like to open a discussion on how bloggers can get paid for their blogging here and would love to know what you think so please leave your feedback below if you have a moment:)
What a terrific opportunity to ask the experts my question! Thank you.
Annabel and Corbett, I have been skeptical about affiliate marketing. For instance, I use and LOVE Thesis Theme and Scribe for SEO and also Darren’s 31DBBB. I thought about using these affiliate programs but why would others buy through me? What incentive can I give them? At first, I offered 2 hours of my time with Thesis but soon realized the thousands of sites with expert info on Thesis. Then I thought about giveaways etc. I also wanted to promote some ebooks, only those I have read and believe in but still need to fully understand why someone would go through me to buy them – EVEN if they find me a reliable source, when it’s time to hit the buy button, would the buyer not want to go to the original source? Please help me think through this…..as I’d love to add some support to some of my favorite products out there. THANK YOU!!!
Hi Farnoosh, you can’t help people set up a Thesis themed blog from the small referral fee…. that would be nuts! When I did my first post about an afflilate product I was recommending I was amazed people thanked me in the comments for directing them to a decent course. Check it out here: http://www.successfulblogging.com/confused-about-the-fastest-way-to-grow-your-business/
If people know and trust you as they do from reading your book then they are happy to hear your recemmendations and of course they don’t have to buy anything if they don’t want to!
Farnoosh, what you can do is offer some type of free “value add” other than a service.
Find an objection or barrier to a person buying the product (say Thesis in this example), solve that objection or barrier (eg quick start guide to using Thesis’ advanced features, or a “skin” they can apply to make their Thesis site instantly look less Thesis-ey), and then offer it free to anyone who buys through your affiliate link (various ways to validate this, usually involves them emailing you their receipt).
Something to think about (think beyond Thesis, find under-served needs).
Hi Paul, thanks so much for checking in to Get In the Hot Spot and leaving a comment with this fabulous idea. I’m putting my thinking cap on:)
Thank you Paul and Annabel. Come to think of it, I got Thesis from CopyBlogger when he was giving away Naomi Dunford’s Ninja for SEO book and I was more than happy to buy through him for that giveaway. You are right and this requires more thinking now. I’ll save it for another day, many thanks! So supportive and thoughtful of you to share all this here with me.
We earn a good income from affiliate marketing from our various sites, and I’m a whole hearted supporter of the concept. My advice is just to adopt your own set of standards – I don’t recommend anything I don’t use myself, and feel to be good value for money. It’s that simple.
@ Farnoosh – I wouldn’t worry too much about adding value. The value is in the product. All you’re doing is bringing it to people’s attention with your personal recommendation. If you set the links up properly using something like “For more information go here” then their browser is cookied at that point, so even if they subsequently visit the source website, you will still get them commission. Most cookies are set for from 45 to 90 days.
Thank you Mike…..I have to look at the approach of some of the pros such as yourself and others here and then finally commit. Problem is I spend all my time writing
! It’s time to set up the affiliate links too. Thank you so much.
Hi Mike, thanks so much for sharing that with us. That’s the same model I’m following – only recommending top stuff. It won’t be the main focus of my blog but people do need help chosing books, courses and other products – I usually base my buying decision on a review rather than a sales page – so if I find something good its a natural step to share it with other people. Sometimes there’s no affiliate scheme so I won’t make any money from it but if there is I may as well sign up and make it an affiliate link.
Farnoosh, I’ve been a bit lazy about putting the links in too but it really only takes a few minutes longer once you’ve registered with Ejunkie or Clickbank:)
Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to get your feet wet before you decide to develop your own product. I remember when affiliate marketing first started back in the early 2000′s, and I signed up and promoted an program…that will pay me $5.95 a month for each subscriber to the software…
Guess what..I got over 1500 people to sign up, and still to this day over 1,000 them are still subscriber and I’m still getting my big check each month from this same company.
So what I’m saying is, if you want to get into affiliate marketing. Then this program Corbett and Annabel is offering will get you on that path to success.
“TrafficColeman “Signing Off”
Hi Coleman, love that story! It looks as if selling products with a monthly fee can get you an ongoing income rather than just a one off. Brilliant to hear that it’s working for you and thanks for sharing that story with us:)
I just set up my 1st affiliate program with amazon last week. I have to admit, I did it to promote my own book, but I do think it’s a great program. I’ll be keeping an eye out for other affiliate programs as I grow the blog.
Thanks for the info, as always!
Hi Barbara, I started with Amazon too. I think that’s what put me off affiliate marketing actually. If someone buys a book you mention you only get about 40 cents!
Now I’m trying to look for exellent products with a better referral fee. I will give Amazon another go. I have an excellent reading list here: http://www.successfulblogging.com/reading-list-for-writers-travelers-and-parents/ I just need to pop in the affiliate links and then let everyone know about it! There’s always a just isn’t there? One thing I do know is that I don’t prioritise earning money from my blog and it’s something I need to focus on more!
Hey Annabel, thanks for the endorsement! Glad you liked the course. I’m getting really great feedback so far. Anyway, if anyone here has specific questions, I’m happy to answer them in the comments. Cheers!
Hi Corbett, thank you! That’s why I’m happy to recommend your course because I know you’re super helpful and always there when I need you:) You’ve spent a lot of time developing this course and I’d love to connect you with people who’d like to take it. I see it’s selling too so that’s great.
You are absolutely right – affiliate marketing can be a great way to supplement or be an income when you are bringing quality products/services to the people that can benefit from them. I love how open and honest you were in your review and disclosure. Nice work and it sounds like a great deal
Hi Nunzio, thanks for the comment. It looks as if I’m preaching to the converted here! I’ve been led to expect angry readers unsubsribing and leaving disgusted comments when you do affiliate marketing but I’ve found the opposite. My readers fully support me in it. I think it’s because I’ve been helping and writing for them for over a year so I’ve got a lot of brownie points! Lol:)
Annabel, I trust you and would be more inclined to buy products you recommend. I don’t mind blogs with ads if they are contained. I shy away from blogs that have too many ads and focus too much on promoting products and affiliate schemes. When I sign up to receive blog updates, I really do not like being automatically subjected to sales emails too since I didn’t give my permission for that. That will make me unsubscribe from a blog very quickly. I also dislike the “only available for x days” approach. I guess these must work since bloggers do them. Here’s one exception: I think Jon Morrow writes the best, most personal sales pitches. He almost fools me sometimes
You do have a lot of brownie points! No angry unsubscribing here. Just giving you my take on this.
Hi Sandra, thanks so much for giving your take. I appreciate it and I have to say I agree with you. I want to keep ads to a minimum and definitely none of the annoying in your face flashy ones.
Re: When I sign up to receive blog updates, I really do not like being automatically subjected to sales emails too since I didn’t give my permission for that
Is it ok if it’s a product review or explanation of something like this post? OK, not OK or borderline OK?!
I agree with the 48 hours only thing too but it must work and I think we’ll get used to it. When I go to a shop with 20% off all bedding this weekend only to buy my sheets I don’t get annoyed with them and it’s the same thing really:)
So glad to be having this discussion with you Sandra, thank you! And yes, Jon Morrow is smart, a top writer and all round good guy. I’m a fan too:)
This is great timing Annabel, as I am looking in the future to creat and market my own services and products, but in the meantime this seems like a good way to go. Think I may just take Corbett’s class!
http://bernicewood.wordpress.com/2010/08/11/university-of-you/
Hi Bernice, whoopeee:) I absolutely know this has to be a good match for some people, I just don’t know who until I mention it:)
Hi Annabel
I agree with Nunzio here and I too liked your open and honest review.
Am I confused with affiliate marketing? No. But I’m still try to getting my head around a few things and that’s where this invaluable reference may come in handy.
Thanks for sharing.
Michael
Hi Michael, great to hear you’re not confused. I suppose I am so that’s why I’m welcoming this discussion! Some people see affiliate reseller and Internet marketers (people like me ahem:) as the spawn of the devil. That doesn’t sound good. On the other hand there are plenty of good bloggers out there like my hero Darren Rowse who are affiliate resellers but are totally wholesome. I suppose there’s a difference between selling quality products (or recommending them) and selling out.
While I’m not in any position to get into affiliate marketing just yet; up until this post I would have run and turned from it! Yep, I had ‘scam’, ‘creep’, ‘rip-off’ as descriptors without actually knowing what it really is all about. Thanks for the clarification and thanks for also acknowledging there are bad ones out there, and most importantly there are good ones too!
Hi Sally, lol! It does have a bad rep doesn’t it?! That’s why I’m so uncomfortable doing it and have been avoiding it and hence avoiding making money from my blog which is a bit silly. Yes, some of us affiliate marketers are on the good side but the darksiders seem to get all the attention:)
Hi Annabel,
Thank you for writing this blog. Like Sally, I am not in a position to make use of affiliate marketing opportunities at the moment, however, I am in the process of developing a brief for my new website and working on my strategic sales plan. Your advice and information about Corbett’s course are very timely.
I would also like to thank all of the people that have contributed to this discussion. You have helped to develop a deeper understanding of affiliate marketing and to get me thinking more creatively about what I want to offer my subscribers in the future.
Regards,
Kathleen
Hi Kathleen, thansk so much for telling us your story. It’s so good to find out what other people are up to and brilliant we can learn from each other’s experiences. Look forward to seeing what you end up doing:)
Hi Annabel,
Very timely post for me. I’m rebranding and relaunching and part of my business model includes the promotion of affiliate products but only when I’ve tested them myself and truly believe they would benefit my clients. I am intending to openly declare when I am promoting an affiliate product because one of the things that really puts me off is when I’ve built a level of trust with someone, they promote an affiliate product in such a way that sounds like a natural extension of their own services/products & then I find they are in fact an affiliate. It immediately breaks the trust factor for me. Had they told me upfront it was an affiliate product then I would be fine about it. Is it usual to tell your readers / clients that you’re promoting an affiliate product (as you’ve done here)? Why are people sneaky about it?
On the flip side, one day I’d like to create an affiliate product but I dont’ want to end up in the creepy, sleezy, scam camp. Interested to know what the numbers are and whether it’s an effective route to market vs. the potential downside.
Hi Suellen, I agree, we have to be open about it. I hope to follow Corbett’s story but I believe creating a product and selling it through affiliates would be an excellent plan and intend to do this myself when I have a product to sell.
It was all news to me, so thank you for this rich and informing post. Don’t worry, Annabel, I’m not going to write that I would have paid for this information if you had packaged it up in a product! Oops!
Very useful content.
Thank you.
Robin
Helping you succeed in business
Hi Robin, you should be happy I’ve made some money by providing a handy service to people here today:)
I feel as if I’m hitting my stride here. I’ve learnt the rules, they don’t all work for me so I’m going to do my own thing and have fun. I’m the blogger with no niche. I’m the one who’s making boring topics like business and Internet marketing fun. Well, trying to lighten them up a bit anyway:)
Things are slotting into place here and I’m enjoying it more than ever:) Thanks for your support!
Bring it on, Annabel! We need some Mardi Gras and bump-fizz in the business development space. Making money IS lots of fun.
I love being on your team.
Robin
Hi Annabel,
I must commend you for discussing a subject that really does have a bad wrap and needs to be explained from a trustworthy person like yourself to clear a few areas up.
I use affiliate links on my website for hosting, plugins, books etc. With the same approach to it that Suellen uses I have purchased and used each and every item myself before promoting it to my website visitors. I receive a modest steady cashflow from the affiliate sales to promote items I would promote without the incentive.
I suggest that many of us are linking to products and services right now that would provide an affiliate payment if we registered with the businesses involved. Just wanting to help others build their advantage online.
kind regards
Tony
Hi Tony, thanks for the long informative comment. What I’ve decided is that there are two types of affiliate sellers – people like you, me and Suellen who would only selll a product they’ve tried, tested and personally recommend which is probably the vast majority. But there are a few unscrupulous people who sell anything to make money and they’re giving everyone else a bad rap! Great to hear that you are making a bit of pocket money from recommending the best tools and products to your clients. I totally agree, if there’s something you were going to recommend anyway and you can sign up as an affiliate for it then it would be churlish not to:)
I like that you’re testing out ways to monetize your skills to pay the bills.
That’s what makes the difference in the long run … you keep testing what works, get feedback, and change your approach. Some folks fail because they never test or they never change their approach … death by analysis paralysis.
Hi J.D, thank you so much for your support. My blog started off as an experiment and it still is. It probably always will be – a beautiful experiment I think:) I’m so glad to be sharing the journey with you.
Affiliate sites are like this mysterious concept to a lot of people….and sometime they have negative connotations. But with just a tad little bit of research and information, you soon realise it’s a valid and genuine way of earning an income. Yes, some products are absolutely crap and the sales techniques of some affiliates is very disingenuous, but a few bad apples should not tar the entire industry. Good post and thanks.
I like the way you simplify the concept of affiliate marketing. I have found that people new to the game don’t focus on the fundamental factors for achieving success. These would be 1) market a product where a market exists for it, 2) market the best product for the market, 3) find a market that isn’t over-crowded and too competitive, 4) write good sales copy (both genuine and sales grabbing), 5) use SEO to get your site to first page Google.
Good post.